Top 10 – Teleporting Characters

The power of teleportation is a skill which few possess; a skill of true concentration and energy. The characters we’ll be chatting about in today’s list are all masters of their craft, able to teleport seemingly with ease. It’s as if moving their, or another whole mass, is just like breathing to you or I. Whatever you think of these characters, it’s certain that these are our favourite zone-phasers.

Top 10

10) Yoshimitsu – Tekken

One of the original Tekken characters, Yoshimitsu is, uh, a space ninja. Yeah you heard me right, he’s a space ninja who is now, as of Tekken 7, also a squid-man. His appearance changes a lot, but one of the common features about Yoshimitsu, as well as his amazing sword, is his ability to teleport around the ring like it’s nobodies business.

Only slicing in at number 10 on our list, Yoshimitsu isn’t really renowned for his teleportation skills, as they’re quite limited. Furthermore, it may be that he’s not teleporting at all, but rather he’s just moving at extreme speeds, which gives off the impression of teleportation. It’s not really confirmed, but Yoshimitsu is a skilled ninja. From space. Who also is now something like a squid.

He’s one freaky dude.

9) Noob Saibot – Mortal Kombat

Ok, so Noob may have started life as something of a joke, a cardboard cut-out with the creators’ names spelled backwards, but he’s gained some pretty incredible backstory, but the only important part is that he’s got some huge tie-ins with Scorpion and Sub-Zero. All three of them can teleport in some way or another, but Noob easily uses it to greater effect in combat than the others.

He and his shadowclones make for a confusing combination; difficult, if not impossible to follow with the naked eye. He drops portals to the netherrealm onto the battlefield, vanishing and reappearing, dragging his foe into shadowy other-planes with a phantasmal assailant, while he merely stands there and laughs. Or far more sadistic is his fatality that leaves the upper half of his victim in the material plane, while their legs are simply… gone.

8) Q – Star Trek

In a galaxy where teleportation is so readily available that most people take it for granted and barely even consider the whole quantum suicide thing, here we see the one Star Trek character who can do it as easily as blinking. Across a room, across a planet, across time and space without so much as a thought, Q simply does it. And that’s barely a fragment of his powers.

The Q Continuum is a collection of apparently omnipotent beings who have become jaded enough with lesser-beings that they toy with them like… well toys, bit of a self-fulfilling simile. Teleportation is an extension of their omnipresence. Mostly our Q (John de Lancie) just uses it to keep people nice and confused as he bounces around the room, occupies the bodies of crew members, and Piccardnapping.

7) Leo Wyatt vs Paige Matthews – Charmed

It’s the battle of the Whitelighters!

Leo Wyatt is the first Whitelighter that we get used to in Charmed. He’s a relatively tall man of good build, who happens to have healing powers. He’s strong enough to defend himself and his friends and family, but he’s mostly known for shimmering in when a situation gets bad. Having the power to heal and teleport is a hell of a combination of powers! Wait. I meant a heavenly combination!

Paige appears much later in the franchise, coming in after the character Prue dies. Paige, at first, is highly skeptical of the Power of Three, as well as magic in general. Whilst she develops, we come to terms that Paige is a Whitelighter who is also one of the sisters, making her something of an anomaly. With her ability to teleport herself and others, heal and kick demon butt, there’s no doubt that Paige was a great addition to the Charmed cast.

6) David Rice – Jumper

Ah, Hayden Christensen, how many fan bases can you upset? The book series by Steven Gould thrust us into a world in which certain people are born with the ability to teleport to any location that they can visualise from memory, opposed by a staunchly religious faction who believe that the power to be everywhere they choose is the domain of god alone. The books are lauded, and deserved to be brought to the big screen, but they deserved better.

Let me say here that I actually like watching the film every now and again, but only because I want to watch Jamie Bell’s Jumper throw a double-decker bus at Samuel L. Jackson’s Paladin, and actually found Griffin to be the far superior character if only for that moment. Never the less, credit where credit is due, without the millstone of the 2008 adaption around his neck, main character David Rice becomes a far more enjoyable character, having fallen hard in life before using his power to turn his life around by robbing banks, travelling and enjoying life.

5) Cheshire Cat – Alice in Wonderland

When you think of teleportation, you typically think about a fancy show behind it. Dramatic hand gestures, a thoughtful pose, something that signifies the user will be using a power. Well, when we think about the Cheshire Cat, we just remember that he appears when Alice needs him to. He slowly phases into the reality of Wonderland, as if stepping out of the shadows.

The greatest asset of the Cheshire Cat is his beaming smile, an image that’ll utterly frighten those who aren’t expecting him to appear. Fortunately, his function is that of a guide, meaning that only those who really need him will be able to find him. It doesn’t take away from that haunting smile he has, which is enough to scare most citizens of Wonderland and, of course, unsuspecting children.

4) Goku – Dragon Ball Z

Okay, so in the original Dragon Ball series, Goku couldn’t do this focused ability, but by the time Z came around, Goku used this like it was nobody’s business. By concentrating, either on an energy that’s far away, or just by familiarity, Goku and a few of the other Z Warriors are able to literally transport their whole body and whatever they might be holding on to.

It’s hard to decide whether this ability was just a convenient way to further the plot, or if it’s actually a valid move. Considering how crazy the characters are getting, with a wild variety of dangerous moves, Instant Transmission is a great addition, convenience feature and storyline progression tool.

Plus, it’s a lot of fun using Instant Transmission in the Dragon Ball fighting games.

3) Abra – Pokemon

This is a uniting experience for all stalwarts of Pokemon, from the very beginning in Red & Blue – this and being sick to death of Zubats. Abra’s are not all that common a thing to stumble across, which would be fine if they were easy to catch, or even fairly difficult to catch, and it’s true to say that they’re not impossible, but dammit if it didn’t seem like it sometimes.

If you didn’t need both hands to cling, white-knuckled, to your mercifully resilient Gameboy, you’d have every finger crossed and taped together, hoping against hope not to read those dreaded words:

WILD ABRA USED TELEPORT

What the hell man? You attacked me! Just get in the ball!

2) Hiro Nakamura – Heroes

There’s little to no surprise why this young man was named Hiro, which when pronounced sounds oh so similar to hero. He may not be the main character, but he’s not far from it, as he starts the story just like you or me – An average geek who loves comics. Especially superhero comics. Whilst he was named Hiro, as a constant reminder of the tragedy that was Hiroshima, his name was a metaphor for what he would become.

Hiro was involved in a pretty major accident, like a lot of comic characters do. Would you believe it, much like comic characters, Hiro gained superpowers! What power you ask– It’s in the title, damn it! Hiro becomes a teleporter, able to transport himself and others as he needs to. He’s got utmost control over his abilities, making him a hugely important character in the series…

… oh right. I guess he also has the ability to manipulate space and time, so you know, totally an ordinary hero. Or not! What unbelievable power!

1) Nightcrawler – Marvel

Was anyone else going to make this top spot? Oh sure, characters had teleported before, plenty of them, but Kurt Wagner may very well have been the greatest and most iconic from comic book and pop-culture history. He is the ultimate BAMF… because every time he teleports, it goes BAMF.

The half-demon inherits his father’s power and his mother’s colouration, and his father being Azazel means that every BAMF takes him through a lesser hell, hence the puff of smoke with every disappearance and apparition. In his early days he could only teleport short distances at a time, maxing out at three kilometres, but he had easily mastered his powers and was a potent combatant utilising the power to instantly be wherever he pleased. More recently he has developed the ability to hurl himself across continents.

Oh, and he’s a pirate! Just… awesome.

Honourable Mentions

Nunc Id Vides, Nunc Ne Vides

Appearing in the place our list leaves behind, behold, the honourable mentions! But get an eyeful now, they’ll be gone in a flash.

Samantha Stephens – Bewitched

No she’s not about to sneeze, Samantha Stephens has a secret that very few people seem to know in Bewitched. This classic sitcom features the day in the very ordinary life of Samantha, who is a witch. With a wriggle of her nose, just about anything is able to appear, disappear, fix, break or otherwise. But when I said appear or disappear, I meant anything. Including people, should she choose (and she did a lot!)

This witch has mastered teleportation, an advanced type of magic. However, Samantha does it with absolute ease. It makes you wonder, if they rebooted Bewitched as a film, would they just make her into a gritty, dark character? Huh, no, no, I didn’t just take a shot at the film industry folks…

… Time to twinkle my nose and get out of here!

Apparition and the Floo Network – Harry Potter

The world of witchcraft and wizardry had more options for transporting oneself than any other, with a full battery ranging from archaic carriages drawn by invisible nightmares, to barely functioning cars from the 70’s that can fly better than they can drive. For those short on time and willing to risk dismemberment, there is also the popular teleportation method of apparating. Or you can take the public transport Floo network, great for families with big hearths or those wanting to make Skype calls with their head in the fire.

It’s all seems quite convenient, except that large buildings like the Ministry must operate dozens of Floo connected fireplaces to ensure their staff are able to arrive safely, because allowing people to apparate runs the risk of terrorist attacks, or accidentally teleporting inside someone. Grim…

Magical powers are amazing, but you maybe wondering why the whole cast of Star Trek didn’t get in. Same reason that Chell didn’t apparate on our list; the characters don’t teleport, but rather the devices they use did. We were specific that the characters had to be known for teleportation, otherwise this list extends a lot. But, much like an ever expanding list, choose your choice of Top 10 for next week, to join our ever growing catalogue of Top 10s! From next week, GeekOut South-West will become delightfully spooky!

We’re done with using up all of this energy, teleporting around the subject like these guys do. But whatever you thought of this week’s list, we want to hear from you! Did we pick the best area jumpers, or did we completely forget a really important teleporting character? Do you agree that Nightcrawler is the ultimate teleporting character? Leave your thoughts below, or over on Facebook and Twitter.

So much like our good friend, the evil Skeletor, it’s a goodbye from him and a goodbye from us.

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Author: GeekOut Media Team

GeekOut Media is made up of Joel and Timlah, with extra support from friends and other writers. We often write Top 10 articles together, so join us for some strange Top 10 lists across all geek content.
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Abra…I still grimace every time I see that teleporting jerk. Most of the time when I meet one it’s my first encounter on the route during a Nuzlocke run, so if I don’t catch the little bugger then I don’t get any Pokemon on that route.

I definitely recommend the challenge if you enjoy the Pokemon experience but want to do something a little different with it. I’ve ended up using a lot of different Pokemon that I wouldn’t normally put in my team thanks to Nuzlockes.